Global Regeneration outline

Outline for Global Regeneration.

1. Context
   • This pattern helps complete Flourishing Earth.
2. Problem
   • We are currently destroying Earth’s ecosystems faster than they can recover on their own, and we’re doing it without really understanding what is there or how to recreate them.
3. Discussion
   • Forces
     • For most of human civilization, we’ve been systematically destroying ecosystems in an effort to use Earth’s resources. Mining, clearing land for agriculture and harvesting wild living plants and animals all contribute to this destruction.
     • Economics and greed aside, these resources have allowed us to provide a better life for more and more humans, but at some point we crossed a line where we were destroying nature so quickly and thoroughly that it could no longer recover on it’s own. And for the most part, we are still destroying nature at that unsustainable pace.
   • When it comes to our Earth, we have a lot of ways we can help.
   • We can slow down and even stop the damage that we’re inflicting now.
   • Stopping the damage doesn’t necessarily mean stopping the use of resources, but it does mean slowing to the level where the planet can keep up.
   • And we need to be working to regenerate damaged or lost ecosystems. To do that effectively, we need to increase our scientific understanding of how these ecosystems work so we have some hope of recreating them.
   • One good thing to note is that nature does a pretty good job recovering if we give it a good start and let it be. A lot can be done by applying small transformations to the tamed places we know and allowing nature to unfold.
   • Therefore:
4. Solution
   • “Holding actions (e.g. campaigns in defense of life on Earth)” from Active Hope, p. 32 (Kindle Edition)
   • But go beyond that to repairing the damage we’ve done as much as possible.
   • Work to restore some portion of Earth by recreating ecosystems through permaculture or other means, and allowing Nature to unfold. Join with the others already doing this, and look for ways where your efforts can support the efforts of others in a positive feedback loop.
5. Posttext
   • Consider working on projects that better integrate our human systems and nature—World That Works—to help reduce the ongoing damage to a sustainable level and even beyond to where everyday human activity actually improves the health of the planet.